Aboriginal councils close to the United States border are concerned about how recently tabled legislation on contraband tobacco could affect native populations.

A bill tabled by the Conservative government in the Senate on March 12 would introduce mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offences related to the possession, sale or transportation of large quantities of untaxed tobacco.

The bill would also create a new task force of 50 RCMP officers to crack down on the sale and distribution of untaxed tobacco products.

Lloyd Phillips, a chief on the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake, a reserve near Montreal, said he feels the potential changes reflect ongoing failures in policing policy for contraband tobacco.

“I feel they’re approaching it all wrong,” said Phillips. “They’re trying to come down with a heavy hand, and trying to stop the industry strictly from a law enforcement point of view.”

He believes proper regulation and increased co-operation between Canada and the U.S. would be more effective.

“We see this as another way to criminalize this issue rather than dealing with a government-to-government relationship.”

Phillips said that although there is manufacturing and sales of illegal cigarettes throughout the country, it is still well known that a large percentage of that industry operates on reserves.

Although Kahnawake is roughly 60 km from the U.S. border, many reservations are directly against, or in some cases, cross international and provincial boundaries.

These reservations are where much of the contraband tobacco trade occurs. Contraband tobacco is defined as unmarked, untaxed, or even counterfeit tobacco products. Combined taxes at least double the price of tobacco in every province and territory but Quebec. This makes illicit tobacco much cheaper and more appealing to Canadian consumers.

Aboriginal Peoples can purchase tobacco tax-free, however it is often sold on reserves to people without aboriginal status, which is already against the law.

Phillips expressed concern over the effect new policies and mandatory minimum sentences for repeat offenders would have on the aboriginal prison population.

A report issued March 7, by Howard Sapers, correctional investigator for Canada, states that 21 per cent of the prison population is of aboriginal descent.

This is in spite of the fact that Aboriginal Peoples in Canada make up only four per cent of the total population.

“Constantly having government come down on (contraband tobacco) from strictly a legal or a law enforcement point of view is not going to have any more success,” said Phillips. “Other than the government spending more money to try to stop it, and making even more criminals.”

Brian David, a chief on the Mohawks of Akwesasne council for the past four years said that he also believes more policing and increased sentencing is not necessarily the answer.

Akwesasne spans the border between Ontario and Quebec, which have very different taxation levels on tobacco.

In addition, their main land holdings, islands in the St. Lawrence River, are also sub-divided by the U.S border.

“The (proposed) statute itself raises more questions than answers,” he said. “I know what the legislators are trying to get at, but I’m not entirely convinced that this is the way to do it.”

The situation in his area has improved over the past 15 years with the current policies in place, he added, but tobacco smuggling still occurs at night.

David said the concern with the illicit tobacco industry in Akwesasne is the lack of jobs for the youth in the area.

Ensuring legitimate employment opportunities could be the key to Akwesasne’s ability to carve out a future for the youth within their community, he said.

“We don’t have the jobs here, and that’s something we’re really taking a close look at,” he said. “How do we target and create those… positions so that we can retain a lot of our talented educated youth here?”